vDSA - The Battlemaster

Lazyness

Hi everyone,

I would like to know if someone else ever experienced this on the final boss in vDSA..
Our group is currently working on a 10K+ score in vDSA, but sometimes we are facing this annoying "bug" (don't even know if it's a bug tbh), which wiped us and caused a 9K+ score.

I'll try to explain what is happening;

we start the fight by sending off the tank to the stairs where he picks up the boss. We wait for the fire to hit him and he'll run back to the starting gate.
At that moment, we kill the flame atronach and burn the boss to 75%. Adds will spawn, we kill the melee, we kill the mage & burn the boss to under 50%. (just to be clear; we don't split. We just burn it) Somewhere around that point, he will "pull" for the first time and right after that he will spawn the 2nd wave of adds.
From that point on, we ignore everything and just burn the boss. He will cast a negate and a nova and the tank will pull him away from it. Somewhere around 25-15% he's performing his 2nd "pull" and this is where the problem kicks in once in a while..

Normally, when he pulls, all the adds and/or firemancers (which should be dead ofc) are stunned to the ground and do not perform any attacks.
But we wiped a couple of times because the mage was still casting spells while we were stuck in the boss his "pull".
Is there anyway to avoid this? (except by splitting or killing the mage)

We noticed that it might be caused by biting jabs, which is interrupting the mage and making her cast a spell a split second before the boss "pulls".
could that be the case? or does anyone has another solution? or did no-one ever experienced this?

Thanks for any replies,
gr Lazy

The_Saint

The mage is stunned when the pull happens. and he didnt cast then, everything that kills you he makes before.

The mage can have his mines on ground (i think he has also another ground cast) and it is possible that you can be pulled in the mines or his cast...

"easy" way is that boss and mage are not so close together and dd's and healer stands opposite site of the mage and have the boss between before pull...
Also you can interrupt him that he isnt able to cast his thinks before the pull...

(hope you can understand my bad english^^)

Lazyness

The easy way would indeed be to split the adds from the boss, but we actually prefer our healer to add some DPS in the mix instead of tanking the main boss for the last 40-35% or so.

I doubt the "mines or ground" spell was the reason we wiped, cause I remember my recap mentioned C-frag once and I guess it was brawler once as well. But if it happens again, ill make sure to capture a screenshot..

Alcast

Sometimes the mage and the warrior attack altough they are stunned kinda like animation canceling and you die.

It sucks but the tank has to position them right (at least the carve dude away fromt he group)and you just have had bad luck if it happened all the time i guess.

Lazyness

Alcast wrote: »

Sometimes the mage and the warrior attack altough they are stunned kinda like animation canceling and you die.

It sucks but the tank has to position them right (at least the carve dude away fromt he group)and you just have had bad luck if it happened all the time i guess.

It would really suck if that's the case. We figured this was happening but I was hoping for a reason which actually made sense..

This only happend 2 times so far, but we just recently decided to go for a 10K score. So it's kinda frustrating to speedrun trough the first 9 stages and get screwed by "bad luck" in stage 10..

RoyJade

This happen a numerous of time for us too, the mage isn't stunned and kill us at this moment. Crystal blast, encase… mines aren't a problem because they are easy to avoid, but these attack…

As a result, the last time we took 15 seconds to kill the mage, after twenty (!) whip without any error before.

Lazyness

RoyJade wrote: »

This happen a numerous of time for us too, the mage isn't stunned and kill us at this moment. Crystal blast, encase… mines aren't a problem because they are easy to avoid, but these attack…

As a result, the last time we took 15 seconds to kill the mage, after twenty (!) whip without any error before.

thats the one indeed; Crystal blast..

At least i'm glad to hear we're not the only one facing this utterly stupid bug.
I guess that leaves us no other option than killing the mage..

There's just 1 thing that we thought of might working; stop using Biting jabs @ 30% boss health.
since jabs are interrupting the mage, which made her cast the spell later then supposed to.
We tried this yesterday and she casted the C-blast earlier and we didn't have any problems burning down the boss..
Of course this will need more testing, but it might solve the problem..

RoyJade

You can also ask to your tank to place the mage far from the boss, like that biting jabs won't touch it.
The inconvenient with the mage it's like all sorc she have a lot of non-instant attack. If she use encase or launch a crystal just before the boss pull us, she is stun but during the pull her attack hit us kill us. And if the timing is bad, we can't avoid it, at least the tank (with encase) can't.

Lazyness

Yeah, we'll probably test both options this week to see which one is easier.
it's just 1 stam Temp DD using jabs, so I guess it wouldn't bother to use wrecking blow from 30% till the boss pulls.
Cause after the pull he will switch to executioner anyway instead of Jabs.

I think it's "harder" to position the mage far from the boss instead of stop using biting jabs for a few %.

RoyJade

Just use the run-out-of-combat mechanism of the mage and the work is done
The tank just need to be close to her, and she will run away -but only once- in the opposite direction. Use it wisely and she won't be on the boss.

Lazyness

you're right about that mechanism, this should work indeed.
anyway, we'll test it both and see what happens

If someone has a better idea/solution, please tell me

Alcast

Lazyness wrote: »

Alcast wrote: »

Sometimes the mage and the warrior attack altough they are stunned kinda like animation canceling and you die.

It sucks but the tank has to position them right (at least the carve dude away fromt he group)and you just have had bad luck if it happened all the time i guess.

It would really suck if that's the case. We figured this was happening but I was hoping for a reason which actually made sense..

This only happend 2 times so far, but we just recently decided to go for a 10K score. So it's kinda frustrating to speedrun trough the first 9 stages and get screwed by "bad luck" in stage 10..

I stopped counting on how many times we got [snip] up by lag/disconnects/loadingscreens/bugs and all that [snip] srsly.

All you can do is restart then

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Cursing & Profanity]

Lazyness

unfortunately thats true.

Normally, i don't mind restarting an instance. But restarting @ stage 10 after 45 minutes of concentrated gameplay gets kinda frustrating

Joy_Division

Damage over time effects will kill you. Keep Yanvi and his Brawler attack away as well while you burn down the boss.

The final stage has always had elements of dumb luck associated with it.

Cîanai

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

Lazyness

Cîanai wrote: »

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

the problem is, there's no time to cast barrier because we wipe in the same second he pulls..
(and no, we are not being pulled into the nova )

Cîanai

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

the problem is, there's no time to cast barrier because we wipe in the same second he pulls..
(and no, we are not being pulled into the nova )

you must cast the barrier before he pulls you

Lazyness

Cîanai wrote: »

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

the problem is, there's no time to cast barrier because we wipe in the same second he pulls..
(and no, we are not being pulled into the nova )

you must cast the barrier before he pulls you

alright, we will test this tonight. thanks!

Cîanai

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

the problem is, there's no time to cast barrier because we wipe in the same second he pulls..
(and no, we are not being pulled into the nova )

you must cast the barrier before he pulls you

alright, we will test this tonight. thanks!

I hope this will help you

RoyJade

Tested it just before, it's work well
A shield during the boss pre-animation, and not dead even with crystal blast + encase + some trash flames.

Lazyness

Good to know! Thx!

Lazyness

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

Lazyness wrote: »

Cîanai wrote: »

You can also use Barrier for the second pull an no one will die

the problem is, there's no time to cast barrier because we wipe in the same second he pulls..
(and no, we are not being pulled into the nova )

you must cast the barrier before he pulls you

alright, we will test this tonight. thanks!

We did a couple of runs yesterday and it seems that stop using biting jabs on the boss and mage just before the 2nd pull (or position her away) is fixing the issue. We will check barrier this week as well to see what will have our preference.

thanks for the help guys, very much appreciated.

david31741

I save my barrier for the final pull in - prevents any bugs from wiping the group.

Lazyness

With final pull, you mean the 2nd pull, right?

david31741

yes

Lazyness

Barrier worked indeed. thanks for the help guys.